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When Kathryn Mueller sings Mozart’s “Exsultate, Jubilate” with the Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra next weekend, it will be the second time in her career that she has performed the famous concerto for soprano with an orchestra.
“During my junior year at Brown University, I won a concerto competition and sang the piece with the university orchestra,” said Mueller. “It’s a pretty challenging work and one of the showiest for solo soprano and orchestra. There are two cadenzas in the piece; one at the end of the first movement and one at the end of the second movement. Recently I’ve been working on what I’m going to sing for the cadenzas.”
Santa Fe Pro Musica’s “A Mozart Holiday” concert features Mueller, violinist Stephen Redfield and violist Kimberly Fredenburgh performing the composer’s “Exsultate, Jubilate,” Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major and Symphony No. 40 in G Minor with the ensemble’s orchestra.
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If you go WHAT: Santa Fe Pro Musica presents “A Mozart Holiday” WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 29 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 30 WHERE: St. Francis Auditorium, 107 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe HOW MUCH: $20-$65. For tickets call 505-988-1234 or 505-988-4640, ext. 1000 |
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This is Mueller’s fifth time performing as a guest artist with Santa Fe Pro Musica. Originally from Arizona, where she completed a master’s degree in music, she has been focusing much of her professional career on early music.
“What I like about early music is that there’s a lot of variety in it,” she explained. “In most opera singing, for example, it’s about legato singing and a constant vibrato. In early music, I get a chance to make other kinds of sounds with my voice. I find it freeing and exciting. My voice is comfortable and well-suited to early music.
“Early music is a growing field all around the world,” she added. “Not too long ago (2009) Juilliard instituted a degree program in period performance, and there are more training programs for early music players and singers springing up around the country.”
In addition to Santa Fe Pro Musica, Mueller has performed with other groups that specialize in early music including New Trinity Baroque, Washington Bach Consort, Capella Guanajuatensis, American Bach Soloists and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.
She has recorded two Grammy-nominated albums with the Miami-based organization Seraphic Fire and made her international debut in 2009 on an Indonesian concert tour with the Swara Sonora Trio that is comprised of Mueller, baritone Nathan Krueger and pianist Argo Wicaksono.
Redfield and Fredenburgh are the featured instrumentalists in Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major, which has a demanding part for the viola. Redfield, who is on the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi, is Santa Fe Pro Musica’s concertmaster. Fredenburgh serves as the assistant principal viola for the New Mexico Philharmonic and is a professor of viola at the University of New Mexico.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor closes the program. Written in 1788 in a typical classical style, this symphony is one of only two that he wrote in a minor key. It was composed during a six-week period of time when Mozart wrote three symphonies.
